Winston and Alex, HOW THEIR RELATIONSHIP SHOULD HAVE BEEN 13 reasons why

COLLEGE TOUR

I sing along to music as I get ready. Disorder by Joy division. Nothing can beat that. After I finish fixing my hair I go to my closet. Inside the room there's a lot of clothes on hangers. I sorted them by style. There's a shoe bin that goes along the bottom of the right wall, below my shirts. Along the left wall are my pants, with a shelf above for scarves. I take one of the black turtlenecks along the right wall and a set of dark blue jeans for my first real day. I walk back to my bed and sit down. I stare at my reflection in the mirror in the middle of the wall across from my bed. Around it I have pictures of the sunset, of my friends. Some of me. Some of my mom. There's a small one of Monty. I remember the day I took it. It was on the pier in front of the ocean and the sun was setting. His brown caramelly eyes are almost sparkling against the sunset. His dimples make him seem fragile, even innocent. There he told me about how his father beat him. The fragility was not just a facade. But I now realize the innocence was. There's something about people with dimples that I really like. I turn to the mirror and look at my reflection. I smile and look at my dimples. I'm not crossing my fingers, and wishing for something at Liberty today. People generally like me, so why would this school be any different? But then again, some of the students framed another kid for murder so I'm not sure how normal I can expect the school to be.

On the left side of the mirror is my wooden desk, with a forest candle still burning. I walk over and blow it out. On the edge of the desk the clock shows the time is 7:45am. It's a 30 minute drive and I want to get there a little early. I grab my backpack and head to my car. My car is parked on the right side of the circular stone entryway. It's still dark outside as I drive to school. The sun starts rising as I turn the corner to the school. I park in my spot and take my camera from the passenger seat and quickly get a few pictures of the sky as the sun finishes rising.

I grab my backpack and carefully place my camera inside its case in my bag. I follow the crowd of kids as they enter the school. There are some bicycles on stands around the grounds. The walking slows as people start huddling around something. I keep walking to get a better look. As I walk closer I see red graffiti on the doors. Wow, I knew public schools had more lax rules. But Graffiti. That's a lot different. Yet, it seems that I'm not the only one phased. So hopefully it's not a recurring thing. I get into the school and the image becomes clearer. There are words written. Not just any words. Not just some sentence. It says Monty Was Framed. I freeze. I see Ani looking at me. She's whispering something to Clay. Well I'm definitely not the only one who knows the truth. This is attention-getting. Someone's bound to ask me questions soon if they're already going to this extreme.

I look at my phone to check my schedule. Math. Great. It's right in front of the photography room Tyler showed me yesterday. Once I get to the class there are a bunch of desks lined up in rows. No one looks familiar so I walk to the middle back.

"Oh hey, is this seat taken?" I ask this tall guy with a sweater.

He looks at me and shakes his head. "Nah, you're good. Have a seat. I'm Zach."

I sit down. "Hey Zach, I'm Winston. I just transferred here from Hillcrest."

It looks like he's about to say something but then the teacher starts talking. I look at the time. Eight hours left. Great. And I'm already tired. I look out the window to my left and start zoning out. It's just a chapter review. I already know this.

After what feels like forever the bell rings. The rest of the day we're going on a college tour. I go to the photography room and walk into the dark room. Tyler's developing pictures that he took of the graffiti this morning.

I take a closer look at one he just hung. "You got good stuff."

Tyler nods. "Yeah."

He holds up a photo he just soaked and hangs it on a clip.